Orrin Woodward

Former Guinness World Record Holder for largest book signing ever, Orrin Woodward is a NY Times bestselling author of And Justice For All along with RESOLVED & coauthor of LeaderShift and Launching a Leadership Revolution. His books have sold over one million copies in the financial, leadership and liberty fields. RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions For LIFE made the Top 100 All-Time Best Leadership Books and the 13 Resolutions are the framework for the top selling Mental Fitness Challenge personal development program.

Orrin made the Top 20 Inc. Magazine Leadership list & has co-founded two multi-million dollar leadership companies. Currently, he serves as the Chairman of the Board of the LIFE. He has a B.S. degree from GMI-EMI (now Kettering University) in manufacturing systems engineering. He holds four U.S. patents, and won an exclusive National Technical Benchmarking Award.

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My son Jeremy loves soccer. No, on second thought, he is a soccer fanatic! 🙂 In fact, his passion for the players and the game has made me a fan from his sheer enthusiasm. Consequently, when the Woodward family was discussing potential vacation spots, Barcelona was always Jeremy’s request. His perseverance paid off and we planned a vacation to Barcelona to watch a live “football” game. Looking at the schedule, we realized the best game to watch would be Barcelona against AC Milan the week before our kids scheduled spring break. However, since our teenagers are all doing great in school, we talked with the school and were off to Europe.

Shortly after checking into our hotel, we were notified that the Barcelona team would be staying at the same hotel! Jeremy, with his jerseys in hand, parked himself in the lobby, along with his siblings and Laurie, for nearly eight hours to see the players up close. Thankfully, the team did enter the hotel and a couple of players signed Jeremy’s jersey. Proudly displaying his signatures, Jeremy stated that signing this jersey would certainly help the players on game-day. I wasn’t sure how he thought that, but didn’t say anything at the time.

Tuesday could not arrive fast enough as Jeremy was up, showered, and dressed by 7:30 am to get breakfast, hoping to see more players downstairs. (This soccer stuff is cutting into my vacation sleep! 🙂 ) When we left for the Camp Nou stadium, Jeremy, and the other kids, were on cloud 9. The mass of humanity and the intensity at the football game were beyond my wildest expectations. I have never seen so many fanatics (I say that with all respect) in one place at one time. The fans had songs, cheers, and taunts, that erupted intermittently during the game as if on queue, even though there was no monitor telling them when or what to cheer.

Barcelona vs AC Milan

Barcelona had lost to AC Milan several weeks back and needed to not only win, but win by at least two in order to advance. The pressure was on, but the best teams and best leaders always respond well to pressure. Barcelona did not disappoint. Within the first seven minutes Messi made a spectacular give and go pass and break to the net, sending a rocket through the outstretched arms of the goalie to score. The crowd (over 94,000 strong) exploded and the Woodward family vacation was shaping up nicely. Later, another goal from Messi and Barcelona never looked back, winning 4-0 before the rowdiest crowd at a sporting event ever.

Interestingly, Jordi Alba, one of the players that signed Jeremy’s jersey, scored a goal just as Jeremy had predicted. One of the Biblical principles taught to our kids over the years is that you reap what you sow in life. Jordi sowed an act of kindness when he signed Jeremy’s jersey and he reaped a reward the next day. (No one can guarantee the reap and reward process will occur so quickly, we hope, however, that you will sow acts of kindness anyway since it is the right thing to do. 🙂 ) At any rate, Jordi’s kind actions made a young man’s dream come true and for that I am thankful to our God above lining up all the pieces and to Jordi for sowing good seeds.

Well, enough writing for now, I have to get ready to go to the City Museum and see one of the best-kept ancient Roman cities unearthed under modern Barcelona. The LIFE Business is allowing so many people to chase and capture their dreams. I hope everyone is planting good seeds into others people’s lives on faith that over time people reap what they sow.

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Captain Bill Howard and I took my friend and co-founder of the LIFE Business, Dan Hawkins, on a shark fishing expedition earlier this week. I like to catch and release the big boys after getting them up to the boat to marvel at their power and design. I have caught Reef, Nurse, HammerHead, Tiger, Bull, and even had a Mako Shark on the line; however, this day 0f fishing would be unique. Incidentally, it was unique for Cap Howard as well and he was a fishing guide in the Dry Tortugas for over 15 years, helping to catch 18 foot Tiger Sharks, monster Hammerheads, and beastly Bull Sharks. Rarely, in other words, is something going to surprise him.

Nevertheless, less than two hours into the trip, I set the hook on what seemed a mild bite and handed the top of the line, practically unbreakable pole, to Dan Hawkins. Dan was not able to make up any ground on this shark, so, assuming he wasn’t applying the proper pressure, I started fighting it. After an hour of making no headway, exhausting myself in the process, I realized this Bull Shark was bigger than any other shark I had ever faced. I surrendered the pole to Cap Howard, who for the next 45 minutes battled the beast to a standstill, but no progress. He simply could not move the Bull Shark’s head in the slightest degree in our direction. In fact, he exclaimed in all his years of fishing, that he had never seen a shark of this bulk and power. Indeed, the longest shark ever battled on the Dreambuilder II required less than two hours to bring into the boat (a nearly 500 pound HammerHead), but after three hours and counting, we resembled spitballs hitting a battleship. 🙂

Finally, at the 3 1/2 hour mark, and the fish made another huge run, taking out 200 more yards of line. I set the pole in the rod holder, hoping to rest a bit as we strategized how to bring in this potential world-record Bull Shark. Curiously, in the Florida Keys this summer, a researcher tagged a 1,000 pound Bull Shark, shattering the previously believed world-record of 700 pounds for a Bull Shark. Evidently Bull Sharks are much bigger than previous research indicated. Without exaggeration, I am convinced we had a Bull Shark of this on the line. Nonetheless, Cap and I had no idea how Dan could get this monster up to the boat to take a picture. As we contemplated our options, the shark dove down to the bottom, snapping the base of the pole while in “rested” in the rod holder! Literally, the force of this fish bent the pole with such energy that it snapped my lifetime guaranteed Ugly Stick. Now, things were getting desperate.

With no ability to rest, we took turns fighting the increasingly upset shark, ultimately requiring two at a time – one, fighting the shark’s power and the other reeling in when possible. Meanwhile, to make matter worse, the weather turned uncooperative with the wind and waves picking up, making it difficult to maintain our footing and hold the pole. Knowing we were now in a race against weather, time and wills – the Bull Shark against ours – we tightened the drag to the breaking point. At the four hour mark, we optimistically believed the shark was running out of gas. The attack intensified as we flexed the pole and line to its limits in the hope of breaking the shark’s will. Instead, we helplessly, watched the shark, who had fought twice as long as any other shark in my fishing history, strung an awe-inspiring run of another 150 yards! Cap, Dan, and I, at that moment, realized we had, in reality, not caught the Bull Shark, but that it had caught us!

Needless to say, we didn’t catch this unbelievable fish, for not long after this run, he frayed the 220 pound monofilament line and convincingly swam away. The shark simply refused to be caught. Thankfully, however, it’s still out there, just outside the Port St. Lucie inlet, waiting for you to be invited fishing. I am calling for reinforcements to help us catch, take a picture, and release this and other sharks. 🙂 Any volunteers? LIFE is great! I love the Christmas season because we can gather with family and friends and dream together. Merry Christmas everyone and if you dream of helping me catch the big sharks, be sure to start working out now!

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One of the best fishing days of my life was several years back when this video was made. In one four-hour period, we caught several Hammerheads, a Bull Shark, and a Tiger Shark! These fishing poles are warranted for life,and yet watch how far they are bent over fighting these 400-to-500-pound monsters. Since we catch and release, these sharks are still out there waiting for you to go PP Top Gun and come shark fishing! I will give you one caveat: Once you catch a monster shark, you will never enjoy catching small fish again. 🙂

Dan Hawkins is down enjoying a month of the Florida sun, and a couple of his RTs (RT is level to qualify) visited to go shark fishing. We hooked into several big ones, but didn’t get one to the boat. It’s just the way fishing and life goes—do all the right things long enough, and success must eventually surrender. Indeed, success is showing up day after day prepared, with the right attitude, planning to win. Then it’s only a matter of time. Likewise, fishing is doing the right things consistently, and eventually you are fighting a 500-pound beast that is much stronger than you! The LIFE Business is helping people achieve their dreams and goals through the LIFE Business Compensation Plan. What are you dreaming about? Better yet, what are you doing about it? At any rate, here is the video that gives you just a taste of what shark fishing is like.

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Successful sales requires finding qualified prospects. I learned this lesson when I was nine years old selling candy bars back in Columbiaville, Michigan. I don’t care how old you are, the first time you call upon someone to share your business or product, it can be a little scary. Thankfully, however, with the PDCA process described in RESOLVED: 13 Resolutions for LIFE, anyone can get better at it. Success is typically a string of failures glued together with a good attitude! The LIFE Business is succeeding because a group of men and women have committed to fail their way to success. What are you waiting for? Start failing, or should I say succeeding today. 🙂

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In the tenth grade, near the end of the school year, LakeVille Schools had a Lap-a-Thon contest to raise money for the sports programs. Since I intended to play sports, I volunteered to gather sponsors who paid me based upon how many laps I could run. Having never run a mile in my life, I had no idea how many laps I could run. I have no idea what mental calculations I performed to arrive at this number, but I set my sights on 30 laps. Why a 16 year old kid, who had never ran in his life at that point, believed he could run 30 laps is beyond me! Furthermore, when all my classmates told me unequivocally that I would never run 30 laps, feeling I would be lucky to run half that many, it really upset me. Remember, its not the size of the man in the fight that counts, but the size of the fight in the man. The more they said I couldn’t do it, the more inspired I was to do it. I committed to all my sponsors that if I didn’t run 30 laps that they wouldn’t have to pay, leaving me with a serious debt to the school on behalf of my sponsors. Talk about having a strong reason why! 🙂 With no practice, outside an 1/8 of a mile jaunt up my dead-end street, I went to the track resolved to run 30 laps or die trying. Here is the video to explain the rest of the story. 🙂

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The first round of qualifiers for free trips are selecting their destinations. I am so excited about this program. The first level to qualify for a trip is just 6,000 points! With $1,800,000 paid out in one-time bonuses and incentive trips, this is one of the best programs for growth that the LIFE Business launched last year. Plus, you get to choose your destination. No herding everyone to one location; instead, you select the vacation that fits your families needs and wants. Where are you going when you qualify? Be sure to Trip Track and getter done! Here is video footage from the major weekend with some of the qualifiers and the qualification criteria for both trips is below the video.

Incentive #1: 6,000 for 6 Trip

Qualifications

Trip Tracker – 200 Personal/Customer PV each and every month. For new Members, Trip Tracking begins with either your first, second or third month in business. For example, if your LIFE enrollment date is June 12th, you can either start Trip Tracking in June, July or August. If one month is missed, the member is no longer eligible for this trip.

PV – 6,000 Total PV for 6 consecutive months with a minimum of 4,000 PV in Team #1 and an additional 2,000 PV, including personal and customer volume, outside of Team #1.

For example, a new Member that was enrolled in June would start trip tracking in the month of June, July or August and continue to do 200 PV each month through the six month consecutive PV requirement.

Trip Options

Disney World, Orlando, Florida – 4-day/3-night stay at Disney’s Beach Club Deluxe Resort. Disney’s Beach Club Resort is a New England-style Disney Deluxe Resort, shaded by broad oak trees and lapped by the gentle waters of the 25-acre Crescent Lake. This trip includes a round-trip airfare credit, Disney Park Hopper Passes, Disney dining meal plan, transportation to and from the airport, and transportation to all Disney properties and theme parks.

Oasis of the Seas, Bahamas Cruise – 8-day/7-night balcony cabin cruise. Experience the ship that revolutionized cruising; its revolutionary and breath-taking design includes seven distinct neighborhoods tailored to create the ultimate experience of enjoyment for all passengers.

Incentive #2: Leader 6 Trip

Trip Tracker – 200 Personal/Customer PV each and every month. For new Members, Trip Tracking begins with either your first, second or third month in business.

PV – 15,000 PV for 6 consecutive months with a minimum of 9,000 PV in Team #1 and an additional 6,000 PV (including Personal/Customer PV) outside of Team #1.

Trip Options

Disney World, Orlando, Florida – 6-day/5-night stay at Disney’s Grand Floridian Deluxe Hotel. Disney’s Grand Floridian Resort & Spa is a Victorian-style Disney Deluxe Resort distinguished as the flagship hotel of the Walt Disney World Resorts and offering world-class dining, entertainment, and luxurious accommodations in its six striking red-gabled buildings. This magnificent hotel sits along the white-sand shores of Seven Seas Lagoon. This trip includes a round-trip airfare credit, Disney Park Hopper Passes, Disney dining meal plan, transportation to and from the airport, and transportation to all Disney properties and theme parks.

Maui, Hawaii – 5-day/4-night stay at the Wailea Beach Marriott Resort and Spa, which is located between two beautiful beaches with pristine white sands and endless blue water. This trip includes a round-trip airfare credit, transportation from the airport to the hotel, Lei greeting, and a helicopter tour ride.

Ocho Rios, Jamaica – 5-day/4-night stay at the Beaches Boscobel, which takes advantage of its stunning seaside locale to infuse all of its accommodations with the flavor of Jamaica. This trip includes a round-trip airfare credit and access to Pirates Island Water Park. Parent magazine voted Beaches Boscobel among the Top 10 Best Beach Resorts.

Celebrity Cruise – 10-day/9-night trip package, including a 7-night cruise from Seattle on the Seattle Celebrity Solstice, 3 nights at a 4-star hotel, and a Mount Rainer sightseeing trip.

Princess Cruise – 10-day/9-night Alaskan cruise on the Coral Princess. This trip includes a 7-day voyage of the glaciers cruise, 1 night at Mount McKinley Princess Wilderness Lodge, 1 night at the Denali Princess Wilderness Lodge, a natural history tour, and a 1-night Fairbanks with Sternwheeler Riverboat Cruise. This cruise is perfect for witnessing all that Alaska has to offer.

The Incentive Trips are designed for two adults, but each qualified winner will have the opportunity to adjust the trip to meet their personal needs. This may result in costs that will be the responsibility of the Member.

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In hundreds of cities across America and Canada, people gathered to attend seminars. Ranging in size from several thousand plus to ten or less, depending upon whether close to a live speaker location or tapping into LIFE’s streaming video technology, this was one of the best rounds of seminars in the history of the LIFE business. The community is growing at a rapid rate, and lives are being changed from the LIFE, LLR, AGO, EDGE, and MFC information. I was in Grand Rapids, Michigan, with the rowdiest seminar group I have spoken to in a while. Kirk and Cassie Birtles did a teaching segment on rotating the 5-step pattern that was phenomenal! I know many of the other LIFE founders were speaking around the country as well.

If you missed these seminars, then you truly missed a life-changing experience. The good news, however, is the LIFE business holds monthly seminars for under forty dollars and for the ridiculously low price of twenty dollars for first-time attendees. Why would top leaders provide life-changing content for twenty dollars? Simply because they know when a life is touched, that person can then go reach another. Since the goal is to reach one million lives, it just makes sense to make it as easy for new people to attend as possible. If you did attend LIFE’s monthly seminar, which one did you attend? What were some key points or magical moments for you? What specifically are you going to do differently now based upon the teachings and feelings from the seminar? Please share with us so we can all learn and improve.

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Shortly before the LIFE Summer Leadership Conference, Claude Hamilton and I spoke at the Michigan Mens Leadership that was broadcast around US and Canada. In Claude’s talk, he challenge each of the PC organizations to build more depth and break more Power Players than ever before. The challenge itself was fantastic, but only the way Claude can, he went further and publicly stated that Kaizen organizations would win hands down over the next year. Clearly, Claude Hamilton was not fooling around with his business and had placed all his focus on building depth and breaking Power Players.

Power Sweep to Power Player

Personally, while listening to Claude’s talk, I was getting more and more fired up because I know the level of competitors we have within the LIFE team. In fact, I couldn’t wait to get up to speak after him to ensure that everyone heard his message loud and clear. Claude’s talk reminded me of one of my favorite sayings, “True competition creates cooperation.” Indeed, the best way to make teams cooperate is to give them some honest to goodness competition. Claude’s talk provided this in spades. 🙂

Evidently, the other PC who were not on location were receiving hundreds of text, because all of them reached out to me saying Claude’s claims of depth dominance were greatly exaggerated. 🙂 With this, the spark of our current explosion was born. Chris Brady, Tim Marks, Bill Lewis, George Guzzardo, Dan Hawkins, and, or course, Claude Hamilton, all have as many Power Players in the first two weeks out of this major as they did the entire three month cycle previously. This is FANTASTIC growth and reminds me of our original Power Player explosion that catapulted the Team from 200 people at major to over 12,000!

Our next major, in Columbus, will be the first opportunity to see which specific teams responded to Claude’s challenge. Every organization will be counting Power Players and which teams finish in the Top 5 for the Power Player Top Gun. Most importantly, all eyes will be on the Top 5 to see which team broke the most Power Players and above for this three month cycle! I haven’t had this much fun stirring the pot in a long while. 🙂 All kidding aside, I have never been prouder of the leaders within LIFE who have stepped to the plate and hit homeruns.

Man, with all the excitement around this Power Player Top Gun, I think I am going to add even more fuel to the fire. This is crazy, as I haven’t even talked to Laurie or the rest of the PC about this one, but I am sure they will love it. The winner of the Columbus Power Player Top Gun is invited down to Laurie and my (I’m sure she won’t mind 🙂 Florida property for a 24 hour check-up from the neck up and (weather permitting) a day of yachting, shark fishing etc. There now we have set the stakes properly. 🙂 Perhaps we ought to make that part of the normal reward for winning the Power Player Top Gun? Since, in my opinion, its the biggest award outside of PC, I think I will.

Ok, let’s wrap this post up. What team are you part of? Are you out sharing 15 plans a month so you can contribute to your teams Power Player totals? Why not step up to the plate and give it all you got for the next three months? LIFE has a goal to reach one million people and we can do that through honest win-win competition with the greatest group of leaders in the world. Today is the day! Isn’t it worth your personal best?

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I flew back to Michigan on Monday to attend several days of PC meetings with the LIFE Founders and enjoyed myself immensely. First of all, because the PC is such a fun-loving group that we bounce numerous ideas off of each other, but end up laughing at the eventual humorous way someone will see the idea. It’s kind of hard to explain, but when you are a PC, you will understand what I am saying.

The good news for everyone is volume is up 42% in the last two months since we announced the trip-tracking process for FREE vacations. Also, the Mental Fitness Challenge has been a huge success as our flagship product. Testimonials continue to pour in on the changes people are experiencing from implementing the 13 Resolutions into their lives. In addition, the pattern is solidifying with MFC playing a part in the contacting, several MFC videos to explain the concept, then showing our standard plan. For a sign up cost of $130 dollars, people can “hold their spot” and start enjoying the benefits of team approach and power-player tracking on their way to trip tracking by the end of their second month.

I love systems and the Team business system married to the LIFE/MFC personal development system promises to launch the community onward to one million people. With the pattern/system set, now the scoreboard becomes essential. Keeping score is what separates those make things happen from those who wonder what happened. 🙂 Anyway, the scoreboard is all wrapped around power-player which is the same as ever:

1. How many customers did you acquire?2. How many levels in depth did you go?3. How many systems counts did you increase?4. What is your subscription count for opens and seminars?5. What is you end of month volume per leg?

It’s as simple as that. Increase your depth and your numbers will increase. Increase your numbers and your volume will increase, both customers and members. Increase your volume and you will be qualifying for free trips and One-Time-Cash-Awards. In other words, build communities, serve communities, and everyone wins!

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When Chris Brady called me last year and told me he was working on another book, that didn’t surprise me as he loves writing and has produced a series of wonderful books; however, when he sent me over a draft copy, I knew immediately this one was different. Chris, although certainly one of the top leaders in the personal development field is, in truth, difficult to fit into the typical leadership expert genre. Indeed, because of his versatility developed through numerous experiences, innovations, and interests, Chris talents flow in so many directions – he’s artistic, witty, philosophical, humble, and the most creative person I have ever met!

Chris applies all of these qualities in writing this book. In fact, Laurie and I have toured Italy several times in my life, but we felt reading A Month of Italy was as enjoyable, if not more so, than us actually being there. How is that possible? Because Chris, through his creative writing style, gives you a seat in the Brady mini-bus as they tour the Italian countryside. In addition to the informative history and gut-splitting humor shared during the day trips around Italy, Chris will also have you pondering the finer distinctions in life, like the difference between the urgent and important, as you “experience” renewal within the context of the Brady family vacation. I laughed; I cried; I thought; but most importantly, I changed after reading this book. Below is Chris’s description of his new book.

For anyone who can answer “yes” to even one of these questions, I am happy to announce that my latest book, A Month of Italy: Rediscovering the Art of Vacation, is set to debut this July. For just a little taste, here is the dust jacket inscription:

What can possibly be said about Italy that hasn’t been already? Primarily, that you can enjoy it too! Refreshingly relate-able in a genre previously populated by wealthy expats and Hollywood stars, this book chronicles an ordinary family taking an extraordinary trip, and most importantly, paves the way for you to take one of your own! With hilarious wit and fast-paced narrative, Brady thrills with honest commentary on what a “trip of a lifetime” actually feels like, and most endearingly, he succeeds in convincing you that not only should you take a similar one, but that you will! Within a few pages you’ll be visualizing panoramic Tuscan vistas and breaking open the piggy bank, laughing as you turn the pages and dreaming of your own escape. This story is one of going slow in order to go fast; it’s about rediscovering and brining back into favor a lost art, namely, the art of vacation, and it is, or rather should be, a story about you.

Here are some of the early reviews:

“I was intrigued from the first sentence clear through the book! It teaches so many life and leadership lessons—about family, relationships, learning, improving, and becoming better. I’ll read it again and again, and I’ll read it on the plane on every vacation I ever go on.” – Oliver DeMille, NY Times best selling author of A Thomas Jefferson Education, Freedom Shift, and 1913

“A beautiful story and pivotal idea for a book!” – Richard Bliss Brooke, author of Mach II, The Art of Vision and Self Motivation and The Four Year Career

“With humor, Brady guides you through heart-warming history, incredible beauty, the most gracious people, and of course, the world’s most delicious food and wine! After reading his entertaining work, you will be charting your own course to Italy.” –Sharon Lechter, Co-author of Outwitting the Devil, Three Feet From Gold and Rich Dad Poor Dad

“I have never read a book that teaches so much while being this fun at the same time.” – Tim Marks, best-selling author of “Voyage of a Viking”

“This is the best work Chris Brady has written to date. If this is a vacation handbook, it has redefined the vacation experience.” – Venkat Varada, Silicon Valley Executive

“Vacationing truly is a lost art, and Brady poignantly and beautifully illustrates why it is so vital for driven leaders. A timeless treatise on ‘sharpening the saw,’ A Month of Italy is a book I will sip and savor, ponder and reflect on time and time again. Not only are Chris’s insights powerful and refreshing, but his vivid and witty writing is simply a pleasure to read. Reading this book is a charming vacation itself, and it will inspire you to vacation deliberately, effectively, and joyfully.” – Stephen Palmer, New York Times best-selling author of “Uncommon Sense: A Common Citizen’s Guide to Rebuilding America”

“In our hectic lives we are rarely 100% present in any situation. Chris Brady shows that with proper play time, our work time is so much more effective. He has freed my spirit!” – Jason Ashley, country singer/songwriter (Texas Songwriter of the Year 2008)

“Italy is unique. Moreover, it is a country where the traveler can en- joy the most various experiences. Chris Brady’s book has the ability, astonishing even for an Italian, to convey to the reader that variety, that richness of feelings, sights, perfumes, tastes . . . and people.” – Senator Lucio Malan, Senior Secretary of the Presidency of the Italian Senate

In early July, look for it in bookstores and online stores everywhere, and of course, here. I sincerely hope you enjoy it!